Short hops and hard knocks with Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne.

Delcarmen on bubble

Red Sox reliever Manny Delcarmen, already on the bubble for the postseason roster because of a shaky second half, is now in further limbo after a car crash on Saturday that has left his back and neck stiff and sore.

Delcarmen felt a little better before Monday’s optional workout.

“Still a little sore, my back and my neck a little bit but a lot better than the last two days,” Delcarmen said. “Just the middle of my back and it kind of moved down to my lower back and my
neck feels a million times better than it did yesterday. Just little by
little, we’ll see how it feels and hopefully everything is good.”

The accident was a scary one and Delcarmen feels fortunate that he is OK.

“I hit the median. Car lost control and cut me off and I slammed and went left and went right into the median,” Delcarmen said. “I feel more bad for my Hummer, but I was kind of happy I was in my Hummer than in some other car. I was on my way here Saturday. The rain didn’t help. But I’m here, I’m healthy and just happy to be here.”

“it’s been weird for me this year. normally I start off a little shaky and finish strong. This year was the complete opposite. My velocity was down a little bit and we’re just trying to figure out what was the cause of it. My arm feels great right now. Being in the accident doesn’t really help that much. It’s just been tough for me these last couple of weeks. Hopefully I feel good, get on the mound and my job is to get people out, so hopefully I do that.”

After a solid first half in which Delcarmen posted a 2.41 ERA, he had a fairly horrific second half, notching a 7.27 ERA. What happened?

“I don’t know,” Delcarmen said. “I just really don’t know. One pitch would be 94 or 95 and another one would be at 90. I can’t remember the last time I was that low. I’m working with [pitching coach John] Farrrell, trying to figure stuff out.”

Delcarmen thinks he is healthy, other than the after-effects of the crash.

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Man — can anything else go wrong for this team and its pitchers? Is this a good omen or bad? is this in a very wierd way good for the SOX and Manny? I Manny is not green-conscious — driving a hummer!!

Also, it really is touch being a manager, isn’t it. You got egos, history, and current performance to juggle. I still would prefer to start Dice-K in one of the games in Anaheim. Who knows if Josh is really on, Dice-K seems to be hot — and I think does better away than at home. Plus then if we come back home split, or down even 0-2 (hope that doesn’t happen) at least we have Josh at home to save us or close it out.

We are putting all our eggs into the first two games — not really fond of this strategy. I know in a short series its very difficult to do this, but has any team (or manager) every aligned his pitching so that he can “win the most” games — instead of “starting with my best first”. Can you handicap yourself one game (so to speak) saying — if I win this game — its a plus — but otherwise, I have a better pitcher going against a lesser pitcher for all the other games. Seems like most teams align the best against the best — making it more an all or nothing alignment.

I suppose in a short series, what I was suggesting, doesn’t make much sense — given that you are going to face their best twice — that would mean if you concede those two games, you have to win all the other three — pretty risky, so maybe you are forced to go best against best.

For a longer series, it seems more statistically tempting. Lead with a Dice-K (see if you steal one) – then you possibly could have a better pitcher against a lesser pitcher for the next three games. But with TV scheduling, rain, or whatever, maybe you wind up facing their best three times, and you get into the same risk as in a short series.

Still its an interesting proposition, what alignment gives you the best chance to win each and every game?

.. also, 3 years ago another redsox player was in a car accident that really, in a way saved his life.. Jon Lester was rear ended on his way to Fenway. Acouple of days later when they were on the left coast he went to his family physician and was shortly there after diagnosed with cancer. Who knows if he would have been examined had he not been in the accident, he went because his neck and back were very stiff from what I remember…..

Unfortunately Leyland cant afford to bench him for tomorrows game.. but I guar-un-teeeeeeeeee you there will be, at least, some in-house fines and punishment for this, if not somethng from MLB to boot!!! They will probably tack on suspensions for the beginning of next season, if they do suspend him….

Thanks, Julia, for sharing that article. It sounds very similar to what I experienced as an infant–I am a hydrocephalac (“water-on-the-brain”), so my family and I can relate to them on some level. I am praying for the health of Johan, and just as important, for the health and strength of A-Gonz and his family. God Bless, A-Gonz!

I think losing Manny Delcarmen is a blessing in disguise. My vote would be to add Dustin Richardson to the mix, if he isn’t already. Kid impressed me with his stuff and mental makeup, and no one has seen him yet-a distinct advantage.

Yes, GSJays, we have been hoping on here for DelCarmen to be replaced–long ago! Whether Richardson is the immediate answer for the playoffs or not, I am sure he will help us down the road. If he does help us in the playoffs, so much the better! We’d wished that DelCarmen had been traded instead of Masterson. But so it goes! GO SOX!

I tried to post his earlier w/o success. I had no idea about Johan Gonzalez. Things like this will always make us look at our priorities and will put things inour own lives in perspective. Both Alex and Johan, I think are giving strngth to the other. It will always remind us that, after all, baseball is JUST A GAME!!!

Dustin Richardson will not be playing for the Red Sox in the playoffs. He was told to go home after Sunday’s game.

Greg…

LOL! A pre-existing injury for Delcarmen, I wonder why. Hmmmmmmmmmm. His second-half has been brutal, excellent first-half much to my surprise. Delcarmen’s performance in the first-half was making me a believer. A short lived believer. lol. Delcarmen has excellent stuff but for some reason he seems to fight himself out there on the mound. He’s his own worst enemy! I think his problem is between the ears. For some reason he doesn’t seem to trust his stuff.

I think so, also, Brian, about DelCarmen. I do think it is a mental block, and I do think he can do better in another place (whether he will or not, who knows?). I think we’ll get our wish this off-season. But we can hope… GO SOX!

Dave: Yous science question is getting easier everyday. You think we are the parents of Yankee fans (with one notable exception here). LOL.
The answer is the sun isn’t yellow. We human eyes perceive the radition of sun to be yellow. An animal may see the sun to be green, etc.

Andrew,
This is a classic example of a poorly worded question. Yes indeed Andrew, color is just perception. The sun emits light in more than one spectrum. The sun gives us visible and infrared and ultraviolet. We don’t get a lot of xray or gamma ray compared to a supernova (sun explosion) of course, but it does happen when it does a solar flare. You can actually download xray light emitted from the sun taken from the moon. It’s kind of cool.
Technically the sun is classified as a yellow dwarf so to astronomers its classified as that due to the wavelength of the most prominent light (yellow) from the visible light spectrum. That temp is over 5000 degrees which is the color of a light bulb.

I believe the key to this series is that the Sox have to take early leads–and hold them–to take away the Angel’s running game. If the Angels are able to run on Varitek and Martinez, walks and singles will become doubles and triples. If the Sox fall behind early in these games…it will be a long night.

I also hope the Sox do alot more hit-and-runs, steals and bunting than they seem to have done lately. In my view, there is little that’s more demoralizing to a team than watching their opponant basically taking bases at will. When other teams steal, advance on hit-and-runs and sacrifices on us, I get the feeling of “helplessness”. Like there’s nothing my team can do to defend itself.

And don’t squander scoring opporunities even in the early innings. Runners on 2d & 3d with no out, the Sox must get both runs in on an out.
I can understand why Uncle starts Buchholz in Game 3 becuase of his outstanding August reccords expecially against CC, Verlander, and Halliday. I am in favor of Dice-K because of in Septempber Dice-K clearly outshines Buchholz and Dice-K’s experience in the playoffs.

The Twins vs Tigers game is underway. Hope that the Twins win it as of right now. Heck, anyone that can beat the Yankees will help right now.

Hope that Manny’s doing ok. First game is what, tomorrow? We gotta take this series from the Angels, no slipping. The most important thing though is to hope that the Yankees don’t get past the ALDS. They have CC pitching in Game one, followed by AJ Burnett and Andy Pettitte. Just wish Clay wasn’t pitching Game 3. I’d feel better if Dice-K was pitching to be honest.
-Hollyhttp://irishsoxkid19.mlblogs.com

I can’t believe how clutch Orlando Cabrera is….He is $$$$$$$$. All that guy does is win……I admired the hell out of him when he replaced Nomah and no one wanted him around. he turned that team around with his “D” and clutch hitting. I am just gald the Sox did not wait too long to pick up AGON this year. He WILL be a factor. Good job Orlando….

It does seem like whatever team wins that team will be rather depleted in its pitching corps. You are right on, Andy.
Craig, I really admired Orlando Cabrera, also. I still wish we had signed him after the 04 WS, instead of starting this SS roller-coaster. We still had the opportunity to stop that roller-coaster if we’d signed A-Gonz. We let it slip again. I HOPE we do not repeat that mistake, now that A-Gonz is with us again! I hope we re-sign A-Gonz, even if it means declining his option and giving him a new contract! Get it done, Theo! GO SOX!

Looks like the umpires still stink in the playoffs — the call strike three against Placido wasn’t even close. Its going to be awful if the umpires haven’t figure out what a ball and a strike is after 162 games — or if they orchestrate who advances and who does not. Of course, I don’t have any interest in this game other than the game itself and who can most likely knock off the Yanks, but that was horrible call strike three at a crucial time — you just can’t have that bad of calls in the playoffs, and in the 9th inning.

One thing that I think has gone unnoticed (relatively, anyway) is that Pap has been much more solid in the second half than he was in the first half. Whatever has been the difference between the first half and the second, he has been giving us far fewer -near-heart attacks this second half, getting the job done with fewer “adventures”–and has at least made a case for re-signing him, or for a new team to pick him up at a price closer to what he will ask for.

DGN, given that we have had the umps giving out questionable calls all year, I look more at whether they are making the same “mistake” or “wrong strike call” for both teams. Even if the strike zone is bad that night, is the ump consistent with that strike zone? It’s when the call is made for one side, and not for the other, that I get concerned. Are the umps consistent? Hopefully, they can adjust their strike zone if they were off the mark that night. But I’ll take that over an inconsistent strike zone from batter to batter, or for one team over the other. GO SOX!

Yea, you have a point — looks like he is adding 6 inches to plate tonight — which drives good hitters (like most of the SOX for instance) crazy — a couple of inches — ok, but he has called out Placido and now Cabrera on obvious balls — I guess he has evened the score — all though Placido out cost more at the time — man on 1st and 3rd and no outs.

Yanks have to be just loving this — both teams emptying their tanks and their bullpen, the night before their series with them — hopefully it will lull the Yanks into complacency and who ever wins will put some immediate hurt on the Yankees.

Everyone want Minnesota to beat NY. You know what, I want the Yankees to win. If the Sox get by LA, I want to see a NY-Bos ALCS, not a Minnesota-Boston ALCS. If the Sox win the WS again, I don’t want anyone to say it was because NY had a bad week against Minnesota.

>>>>>>>>>>> Science Question >>>>>>>>>
.
This is for everyone with a background in science.
.
What is the formula for carbon dioxide and what are its components and what are their quantities.
.
BONUS:
Can you figure out the molar mass of carbon dioxide?

Dave: CO2, 1 atom of carbon bonded with 2 atoms of oxygen. Is molar mass same as atomic weight? If that’s the case, find out the atomic weight of carbon (x) and oxygen (y). So the molar mass will be x + y.2 . Dumb answer?

I have read some comments on here and other places, have spoken with friends that are Red Sox fans as well and I am amazed with the discussion with Buchholz or Dice-K starting game 3 or game 4. This just in folks, with a 5 game series there is only (1) starter that has a chance to pitch (2) games and we all agree that guy should be Lester. Does it matter if Buchholz or Dice-K pitches game 3 or game 4??? Either one will have to take the hill for a game in Boston. If this was a (7) game series, then your game 3 starter would pitch a game 7. Then I think we could have a good debate but in a 5 game series, we’re splitting hairs. My thoughts. Personally I would have had Dice-K pitch game 2 and give Beckett some more rest and get him ready for game 3 Sunday in Boston.

Bet the house/kids and anything else on the Yankees tonight. I hope I just jinxed the Yankees. LOL!

I heard that Don Orsillo will be doing the Red Sox playoff games for T.B.S. We give the announcers a hard time on here but I don’t think we can gripe this time around. lol. He’ll be teamed up with Buck Martinez, who is a solid announcer.

In 2007 Orsillo did the (1) game playoff between S.D. and Col. and that same year did the Col. vs Philly series, the Rockies swept the Phillies that year. Last year though, Orsillo did the Chi. vs T.B. series with Harold Reynolds. Reynolds now on the M.L.B. Network and I assume still kissing A-Rod’s a–. Fill in the blanks. LOL!!

Bosoxbrian,
One possibility with Beckett is that a larger stadium (California) might give him more of a fighting chance with the home runs. Josh is getting killed with home runs so it might be a way of giving him a fighting chance.
Going to be a tough series. LA is out for blood.
Yankees could practically call up the minor league teams and beat the Twins at this point and I wouldn’t be surprised if they do.

Everybody seems to writing off the Twines in Game 1. The Twines pitcher Brian Duensing has put up an impressive 5-1 record with a 2.59 ERA in nine ML starts although he didn’t fare well against the Yanks in his relief apperance in July. If CC’s post season records hold up and granted CC is well rested, we might see an upset.

Brian: When a Brian pitches good things happen. Do bet the house/kids on the Yanks. That’s what the America needs, another homeless & displaced person. LOL

Dave: I thought the Sun is yellow question is easy. I was guessing on CO2 question. Honestly I have no glue what molar mass is. What do you know I guessed right.

Andrew,
The molar mass (mol) was designed to make life a little easier for chemists. The number of atoms in one mol of anything is 6.02 X 10 E 23 atoms. Therefore if you have a mol of money you have 6.02 X 10 E23 dollars. If you have a mol of grass seed you have 6.02 X 10 E23 grass seed. That number is so large it’s beyond comprehension. If you US had a mol debt, they’d be sold to whatever country wanted to pay the .23 cents to buy it. If we had a mol of material, we’d need the Atlantic ocean to store it and then some. It’s huge, huge, huge and yet a mol of carbon is about less than a teaspoon showing you how tiny these particles are!
Therefore if you calculate the molar mass you’re calculating the number of mol = atomic mass unit. While these terms all agree mathematically, they do have differences in their meanings.http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/reference/molar.html
This gives a good background which is beyond the scope of the blog to explain it all.

Julia,
It would be an AMAZING upset but I don’t see it happening. New York has the best record in the league and have been unstoppable since the All Star break. They have mowed down everyone they came across. They will destroy the exhausted Twins without blinking an eye. The only way they will lose if they get arrogant but sadly Girardi is a dedicated manager who doesn’t take #$$ from anyone and won’t let his players get complacent.
As far as the Sox, if they beat the Angels this year I will be stunned. They don’t have home field advantage, have injuries and Beckett is hot or not.
However if the Sox make it to the World Series rounds they will easily win in. We’ll have to see.

Julia,
It would be an AMAZING upset but I don’t see it happening. New York has the best record in the league and have been unstoppable since the All Star break. They have mowed down everyone they came across. They will destroy the exhausted Twins without blinking an eye. The only way they will lose if they get arrogant but sadly Girardi is a dedicated manager who doesn’t take #$$ from anyone and won’t let his players get complacent.
As far as the Sox, if they beat the Angels this year I will be stunned. They don’t have home field advantage, have injuries and Beckett is hot or not.
However if the Sox make it to the World Series rounds they will easily win in. We’ll have to see.

The last pitchers spot comes down to Byrd or Delcarmen. Slim pickings but I would take Byrd. Byrd could give you multiple innings. Delcarmen’s second-half should punch him a ticket out of Boston. Francona shouldn’t even have Delcarmen under consideration for a playoff spot. Wake up Francona, wake up!

Hey all!!! Seems like Cliff Lee has all that and a bag o’ chips too!! Good stuff from him this afternoon. I still want to see how the Cards fare… I think that their one-two lineup is the best in the bigs. Go Twins!!!!

Carter was on the Opening Day roster for the Red Sox this year, that seemed so longggggggggggggggggg ago! Carter came here for Willy Mo Pena. Willy Mo Pena was last seen where???? HA…HA…Of course Willy Mo came from the Reds for Arroyo, what was Theo thinking on that one???? Theo has made some shrewd moves but also some dumb one’s and Willy Mo for Arroyo is high up on the dumb side.

Leadoff walk came back to haunt the Twins.
Brian: You won’t be homeless. The Boss Steinbrenner will put you up in Tampa since you bet you house on the Yanks.
The scaore is closer than I thought either way.
The Yanks did sweep the season series just by one or two runs each game.
Baldelli healthy or not, Gaithright must be in the roster to pinch run and steal base.
The Angels I fear most is Abreau and luckliy Napoli won’t be in the lineup.

If Baldelli is a go, Anderson will be the odd man out. Gaithright’s speed WILL be needed!

I would rather be homeless than be under the same roof of Uncle George. LOL!! Then again he wouldn’t even know if anyone is around. The local paper in the Tampa area had a story on Steinbrenner a few months back and named him one of the “water hogs” in the Tampa area.

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